There was an article in the latest issue of American Philatelist, called “The Faux Philatelist” which I agree with almost entirely. In it, Barry White says that he is a stamp collector, not a philatelist.

I am also a stamp collector, not a philatelist. It’s nice to see people out there pointing out the differences. Therefore, here’s why I do what I do.

First off, and it’s sad that I have to say this, but you can do whatever you want to do. Be what you want to be. Collect what you want to collect. I am not saying that what I do is right for everyone, only that it is right for me.

Secondly, I wanted to define my terms. It is similar to what White said in his article, but I’m going to add some nuance. For me, I see three different categories of stamp enthusiasts, although certainly it could be further refined down to infinity. I have seen people call themselves postal historians and not philatelists, and even people who don’t even collect stamps, just study the details of postal history, but I think that we’ll stick with philatelist for the moment.

Philatelists collect stamps and study postal history to some degree or another. That does not describe me. While certainly, my head is stuffed with random postal trivia, picked up over a lifetime of collecting, that is not my primary interest. I do not sit around reading books on postal history, I do not memorize postal rates and frankly, I just don’t care. If you do, great for you. It’s not for me.

My second category, of course, is stamp collecting. That’s what I do. I do not remotely specialize, nor am I a completist. I want one of everything in my collecting interest, that is all. It’s why I have albums. One of each stamp and then I move on. I start where I want, I end where I want, but if there is a hole, I try to fill it.

The last kind of collector is the accumulator. That is someone who tries to get as many stamps as they can get their hands on. One or a million, it’s all the same. That is not me, especially not now. When we moved, nearly a decade ago now, I went through and decluttered the house. All of the extra stamps that we had, they all got donated to a local club, to a couple of beginning collectors. Today, if I ever get a pile of extras, they wind up with them. I never have more than a handful. I just don’t want them.

I have to keep repeating that if that’s what floats your boat, go for it. I don’t care. Do what you want to do and let me do what I want to do. It’s really sad that I have to keep stressing that these days. There is something seriously wrong with a lot of people.

There is, I suppose, a final category of people that I have to address and those are the people who are only in it for the money. Now yes, there are people who inherit collections but have no interest in collecting. I can understand those people asking a lot of questions. Those are generally not the people I’m talking about. I mean the ones who are only in it for the money. They go to the thrift shop and buy an album and expect it to be worth a million dollars because it “looks old”. When they are invariably told that it isn’t worth anything, since the overwhelming majority of stamp collections out there, especially in thrift stores, aren’t worth anything, they go out and do it again. And again. And again, getting madder and madder every time when they’ve got a worthless collection.

These people are just not bright.

You don’t go looking to get rich, not knowing a thing about what you’re trying to get rich with. The less said about these people, the better. The more money they lose looking for riches, the better. Some people just deserve what they get.